Sponsors flee disgraced cyclist Armstrong

18 Oct 2012, 2:26 pm   -   Source: AAP

US advertising experts say Nike's statement condemning disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong could be a sign that he lied to the sportswear giants.

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It's not unusual for companies to end sponsorships when star athletes run into trouble, but the public manner in which Nike severed its ties with Lance Armstrong is rare, say advertising experts.

Celebrity endorsements always carry a risk and, when things go wrong, brands tend to move swiftly and quietly to end them, said Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

"What's surprising is that Nike came out with a very pointed statement about Lance Armstrong," Calkins said. "And behind that statement there seemed to be some bitterness."

Several other companies - including Anheuser-Busch, Trek Bicycles, helmet sponsor Giro and Honey Stinger energy foods - are also pulling sponsorship deals with Armstrong.

However, Nike, Anheuser-Busch and others said they will continue to support the Livestrong cancer-fighting charity.

Nike said on Wednesday it had terminated Armstrong's contract "due to the seemingly-insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade".

It went on to say that "Nike does not condone the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs in any manner."

Calkins noted that in the past, the company has stuck by other controversial athletes it has endorsed, including Tiger Woods.

"If you look at the way they phrased this, it was clearly suggesting that Nike felt they had been lied to by Lance and they were upset about that," Calkins said.

"They're also saying to other athletes that if you're not straight with us, we're going to drop you and do it very publicly."

University of Texas advertising professor Neal Burns said Nike should have cut the relationship with Armstrong when the US Anti-Doping Agency investigation began making headlines in June.

"They were more patient than they should have been," Burns said.

"I'm sure there was conflict inside the organisation over whether to stand by him, and the result was that they waited awfully long."

Burns said that before Armstrong can begin the process of rebuilding his personal brand, he needs to get out of the spotlight.

"He should be very quiet and essentially has to disappear for some time," Burns said.

"At some point when he comes back, he will have to really work on again creating a positive image of himself as a fighter of good health and a fighter against disease."

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